The manufacture of hard candy, including mints, tarts, suckers, and lollipops, has evolved from simple handmade cooking, mixing, molding and flavoring techniques to sophisticated manufacturing technology and integrated candy manufacturing process lines which can efficiently produce millions of pieces of tasty hard candies. The machines used in such process lines are often highly automated computer controlled and have user friendly touch screen interfaces facilitating operator control and monitoring. Manufacturing equipment integrated with sophisticated electronics, sensors and programmable controllers to produce such hard candies is the current state of the art.
There are many manufacturing control technologies involved in candy manufacturing as well as many types of candy manufacturing equipment. There are machines made for specific processes as well as complete integrated candy manufacturing processing and packaging lines. Some examples of candy manufacturing equipment are for example mixing and cooking apparatus, aerating equipment, candy molds, candy cooling and coding apparatus, automatic decorators as well as candy wrapping and packaging equipment. The contemporary machines used in such manufacturing solutions are generally highly automated and sensor controlled.
An example of hard candy manufacturing equipment is the apparatus and equipment used for the manufacture of lollipops. Pops, suckers or lollipops are a well-known hard candy manufactured throughout the US and around the world. Lollipops are often prepared in large cooking vats such as vacuum cookers where the solid pop starts from raw materials such as sugar water and flavoring. These raw materials are mixed in the vacuum cooker into a pliable mass of candy, generally in a slurry form for further processing. The slurry is introduced into a mold and presented for a lollipop stick insertion into the warm slurry before being cooled and hardened. After removal from the mold the lollipop is polished and packaged into appropriate wrappers and containers and then the container(s) are shipped to stores, distributors and customers.
Hard candy is known to be made by a process known as “depositing”. Depositing consists of an automatic way of filling, or depositing into molds confectionary slurry, however the process is subject to many variables which are difficult to control and to attain a high end candy product. Furthermore, it has been particularly difficult with known processes to deposit both the slurry for the complete outer portion of a hard candy lollipop while providing a soft center which is entirely encompassed within the hard candy outer shell. Known depositing machines and processes have substantial difficulty in handling different materials and cooperatively depositing materials with different viscosities.
Soft candy centers such as those found in Blow Pops or Tootsie Pops are made by an extrusion, cutting and rolling process different from depositing. Hard candy pops such as Blow Pops or Tootsie Pops are made generally with the raw ingredients for the candy coating combined in large vats. These include sugar, corn syrup, coloring and flavorings. The candy is then heated and stirred to allow the sugar to melt and combine with the flavorings. This smooth liquid is cooled slightly and poured into a machine that pours the candy onto a conveyor belt, creating a long ribbon of the hard candy coating. While this ribbon is still warm, it is shaped into a long snake or rope and kept warm and pliable.
Long sheets of white paper are cut to the length of the stick, which is about 2½ inches long. These sheets are tightly wrapped around themselves with each one creating a stick. A light coating of food-grade wax is applied to prevent the paper from dissolving when the sucker is put into a mouth. The bubble gum or tootsie center is mixed with sugar and flavorings in large vats. These are then combined, and the finished gum or tootsie soft center is fed into an extruding machine that creates a long rope similar to that of the candy coating. This is then wrapped around one end of a stick with a machine that also shapes the bubble gum into a sphere. These gum-wrapped sticks are then sent to a similar machine, which wraps the candy coating on the outside of it. Once the candy exterior is added, the lollipops are cut and dropped into a cooling drum. As the drum turns, it polishes, cools and maintains the rounded shape of the Blow Pops. After several minutes, the cooled Blow Pop suckers are sent to be wrapped. This is a significantly more expensive and involved material handling process than merely mixing and depositing processes for hard candy.